'Harry Potter' Breaks Hong Kong Record But 'Transformers' Stands Tall

HONG KONG – Harry Potter bid Hong Kong farewell with a bang and a whimper, as the last installment of the boy wizard saga debuted with a record-smashing opening day, but failed to live up to the opening weekend racked up by Transformers: Dark of the Moon two weeks ago.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 opened ahead of the U.S. on Thursday in Hong Kong and promptly raked in over HK$6.3 million ($808,000), snatching the non-holiday, highest-grossing, opening day crown from the Transformers three-quel, which was set two weeks ago.  

The concluding chapter of the Warner Bros series, with Oliver and James Phelps, who played the Weasley twins, in Hong Kong to promote the film, grossed HK$29 million over its first four-day weekend. Although a more than respectable sum, it did not match the opening weekend total of HK$40 million of the Michael Bay robot actioner.  It was partly due to the fact that Transformers 3 opened on a Wednesday, and that five-day weekend included a local public holiday (July 1), when the film grossed HK$10 million on a single day. The gross for Transformers 3 during the same run of Deathly Hallows Part 2, from Thursday to Sunday, added up to HK$32 million.  

The Hong Kong box office for Transformers: Dark of the Moon up to Sunday totaled HK$75 million.